When my friend in South Africa was ill his cat left him three dead mice, lined up side by side, outside his bedroom door until he was well again (about a week). Once he was better, the cat stopped bringing them.

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.

Jan Van Quirm wrote:It's the antipodes so if you figure on around 12 hrs ahead of the UK then it's about right although I think the time difference is more like 9 or 10 hours-ish in eastern Oz. Basically when she's getting up tomorrow we're going to bed today in other words (would have said the other way around but as she's regularly up until 4 am that's not so meaningful)

I think she's probably just got a lot on with the house sale and juggling school stuff and work schedules and so something has to give and online 'luxury' time has been downwardly prioritised

Yep! Thats whats been happening.

So exhausted. So sore. Doing so much and still feel like I havent done anything. Told my sister I have been "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic". End of the school year looming with assignments and exams, high school for M and last of primary for H. Between the leasing agent and the selling agent, inspections inspections inspections! They rang AGAIN today to ask for another tomorrow (not legally allowed to) but apparently the leasing agent says the owner wants pics of the damage downstairs (like he didnt KNOW the shower was leaking!!!!!) He was HERE and saw it!.... I think the owner and the leasing agent are going to try to implicate that it is somehow MY fault ... and take it out of my bond..... The owner is a cheapskate who has done nothing on the house except the extremem maintenance when a pipe has burst. AND the repair man is constantly in and out. Have had two buyers to come look too. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah and work. Hurt my back and it hurts to stand .... and considering my job is to stand and be freaking HAPPY its been a push.

Meh! I am so over it. Twill be what it twill be.... time enough when its sold to freak out.

Wish I could get on here more often to keep a sane head. Thanks for all your concern peeps. xxx

My brother brought home his girlfriend for the Christmas holidays once. She shuffled out the next morning in these slippers that looked like she had stepped on two guinea pigs.

Strange thing was .... they were EXACTLY the same colour and markings as OUR two guinea pigs. Mum almost threw up. My little brother screamed. It was NOT the "first impression" she was hoping to make to the family.

I am really, really angry. Worked hard to plan something for later in the month that is supposed to be fun, but has now been ruined. Don't even want to do it now. "Angry" does not even really cover it.

“It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening.”― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees:

Okay... taking deep breaths... reminding myself that homicide will land me in jail...

So. We don't get to see my father in law and his wife very much because they spend half the year in Florida. We were fondly remembering a trip a few years ago where we spent Thanksgiving with them. Decided we wanted to do try to do this again. Who had to do all the planning and communicating to make this work even though we were both on board and this was his family? Who even had to make sure that Derek requested the time off work? One guess.

Then talk turned to what plans we would make while we're down there. We always have 2 or 3 day trips out for fun stuff. I suggested Universal with the whole Harry Potter thing - no, he didn't want to do that if we didn't stay the night and do both parks, and didn't want to spend the extra $$ on that. Legoland? No, too much $$ for tickets for one day and he's not sure if it will be cool enough to be worth it. Fine. Then I realized that we had enough Disney Dollars to cover a night's stay and tickets to the Christmas party in the Magic Kingdom. Great! Everybody's happy!

Then we hear from f.i.l. that plans have to shift a bit and we're going to go the week after Thanksgiving - no big deal, entirely doable. But, Derek thinks it's a waste to have those days off at the end of the week before and that weekend and wait to go down. So, he wants to go down early anyway so we can still use the time off work/school and enjoy ourselves before going to his dad's. Ok with me. He says lets go down this day and we'll spend two nights at Disney and get to enjoy a couple more things to do there. Fine with me. I spend a ridiculous amount of time on the phone yesterday just to book the room and the (non-refundable) party tickets. He gets home from work, I let him know we're set and ask him a question about something else we might want to do while we're there. And he EXPLODES! Not only does he blow up over the extra planning and cost of what I suggested (both stupidly minimal, and all the planning is on me of course), he then accuses me of talking us into 2 nights instead of the original 1 night.

Let me just say here that we've got money set aside for vacation. There is no reason to freak out about the money. So, what the hell is the problem? This was just supposed to be a fun little getaway to give everyone a break. Now it is most definitely not fun. And the yelling thing? Let me just say that he normally has a far better sense of self preservation than that. Yeah. "Homicidal" is not really covering it at the moment.

“It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening.”― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees: